


Kindred

by timecodelife



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Deaf Character, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-03-03 19:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 7,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2875859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timecodelife/pseuds/timecodelife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the 2014 Klaine Advent Challenge on tumblr.</p><p>Blaine and Kurt are married and living in New York City when they have their first son, Micah, via surrogacy. Micah is born deaf. Each prompt number corresponds with Micah’s age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ache

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve not written fanfiction in years, and never Klaine/Glee. But I had an idea and I had to try. I am not deaf, simply a student of ASL, so please point out any offenses or inaccuracies you may see! This was written for the 2014 Klaine Advent Challenge on tumblr, so the chapters are short and a bit rushed, as well as unbeta'd. I apologize for the inevitable mistakes!
> 
> Wordcount: ~7.6k, individual chapters ~150-600 works

Blaine holds Micah in his arms, sitting on the child-sized hospital bed and aching for his hurting son. They had decided to do this after they worried about Micah’s socialization skills, and mainly his safety. After one long year of debating what to do – to leave Micah solely in the community he was born with, or to attempt to drag him into the hearing world – they decided as parents, they did not feel secure enough.

So they had gotten Micah a cochlear implant. It was in his right ear. His one-year-old son didn’t know what was happening, and Blaine couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. He had read and watched everything he could – accounts from deaf parents with hearing children, hearing parents with deaf children, documentaries about hearing families and the Deaf community’s debate over cochlear implants. He knew that a lot of Deaf people didn’t approve of cochlear implants, especially when it was not the child’s choice. But in the end, they had decided they had to do what was best for their son. And in their case, Micah needed to be able to hear.

Still, they would sign with him, Blaine and Kurt promised one another that they would try and let Micah be part of both communities, if he wanted. It was his choice.  When he was older, if he decided to get another implant, it would be his choice. But Kurt, especially, worried so much. What if Micah wandered away at the store, or the market? There would be no way to find him if he couldn’t communicate with anyone, and couldn’t hear a blaring PA telling him to come to wherever lost little boys and girls gathered. And Blaine and Kurt, try as they might, could not learn an entire language in a year. They needed to be able to speak to Micah, to teach him things, and they didn’t know how to do that solely in sign. And so, the decision was made.

He wondered if they were being selfish, but at the same time, he knew they was doing what needed to happen for their family. But right now, when Micah is curled in his lap, whimpering sadly and Blaine holding his tiny wrist gently to make sure he doesn't bat at the bandages on his head, he can't help but ache for his son. It doesn't matter if this was the right choice or not, just now. Right now, Micah is hurting, and Blaine needs to comfort him.

Kurt comes into the room from the hallway where he's been talking to Burt on the phone. He sits next to Blaine.

“I know we’ve been over this a lot,” Blaine starts. “But… I just… Hope we made the right choice.”

Kurt nods. They've debated for months despite some of their friends telling them to leave their son deaf would be abuse. Kurt holds out his arms and Blaine transfers Micah into Kurt’s lap. Micah whines before settling against Kurt’s chest, burying his small head in Kurt’s shirt.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Kurt says quietly. “We’re not… fixing him like Brittany said. It’s just doing what’s best… for us, so we can do the best for him.”

Blaine leans against Kurt’s shoulder, closing his eyes. Despite the cutting hospital smell on their clothes and Micah and the air, he still detects Kurt’s scent, reassuring him. “Yeah,” Blaine breathes out. “Yeah, okay.”

 


	2. Balance

Micah speaks, now. It’s only a little bit, and it’s only for very specific things: Da for Kurt or Blaine, No, and Up are pretty much all he says. Still, they couldn’t be more proud.

They’ve made sure to continue signing to him. They know Micah can hear some things, but he also can’t hear some things. When Blaine plays with Micah on the floor and Kurt comes in, Micah never notices the door opening until Kurt comes over and grabs him for a hug and a kiss. Then Micah shrieks with laughter and runs around with too much energy until Kurt has to sit him down and scold him.

They’ve tried to find a balance between signs and words. They know that their grammar is incorrect, most of the time, but they suppose signed English is better than nothing. And they’re trying. They’re really, really trying.


	3. Cloud

The three of them lay on the grass, gazing intently upon the sky. It’s a nice day. The air is warm, but not heavy. The slight breeze is just the right temperature, and Micah is between Blaine and Kurt, smiling.

“I see a duck,” Blaine says.

“What? Where?” Kurt scoffs, like the notion itself is ridiculous. “It’s clearly an elephant. Right Micah?”

“Mhm,” Micah says. They’re not singing right now, because they’re laying side by side. Rarely do they keep their fingers still, but sometimes it’s just easier to speak. And Micah, he _understands_. It makes them so proud.

“Fine,” Blaine huffs. “Well, there’s a bowtie.”

Kurt laughs. “You see bowties everywhere.” Blaine smiles when Micah laughs along. He sound so much like Kurt, he is so very much Kurt’s child. And his child, for that matter. Kurt is his biological father, but it doesn’t matter. All the worries about Micah not belonging to him in the same way he would Kurt disappeared as soon as he became a father. It wasn’t about blood, it was about love. Those were the real family ties.

“Heart,” Micah exclaims, pointing up at the sky at one cloud that was, in fact, rather heart shaped. Both Kurt and Blaine agree.


	4. Dessert

Coney Island is where they spent their first anniversary, and they decide that it’s time for Micah to experience a theme park, too. He went to a tiny kids’ water park when they visited Ohio for Christmas once, but that’s it. They want Micah to experience some good, old-fashioned outside day-time fun.

Micah is used to the buzz of cars and people everywhere. They live in the suburbs, now, needing a place that’s less crowded to raise their kid, but they visit New York fairly often to see their friends. Still, Micah is not used to the sound of the ocean or the music that blares louder than Kurt ever remembers it was when he was younger.

They’re on the boardwalk when suddenly Micah sits down and clasps his hand over his right ear, whining and trying to remove his cochlear. “Micah?” Kurt asks, alarmed. He kneels in front of Micah, and Blaine stands nearby, holding their things and looking worriedly down at them. “What’s the matter, honey?”

Their son just whines again and Kurt looks worriedly at Blaine before pushing Micah’s hands away gently and removing his implant. Micah squirms a little before Blaine puts their things on the ground next to him and steadies him. “Easy, little man,” he says, and then it’s out and Micah stops looking like something’s been attacking his brain.

‘What’s wrong?’ Kurt signs, searching for his son’s eyes.

‘Too many noises,’ Micah signs back, looking unhappy, but calmer. ‘Loud.’

Blaine nods and picks their things back up. ‘C’mon buddy,’ he signs. ‘It’s okay. We’ll just keep it out for now.’

Micah nods and takes Blaine’s hand in his own. They begin to walk back down the boardwalk. “What if he gets lost?” Kurt says worriedly, whispering. Micah wouldn’t hear even if he was speaking plainly, but it’d feel wrong and definitely be offensive if Micah were old enough to understand the gap between the language his fathers spoke at home and at work, without him.

“He’ll be okay,” Blaine replies. He can’t know that, not 100%, but he needs to trust his son will be fine. “Ice cream,” he signs to Micah, who’s eyes brighten.

Kurt sighs but just whispers for him to make sure he keeps Micah in sight at all times. Blaine orders chocolate, Kurt vanilla, and Micah strawberry. They all share licks of each other’s flavors.

Micah’s smiling like it doesn’t matter he can’t hear the buzz that practically makes this place what it is for Kurt, and if he thinks about it, it doesn’t. His son is experiencing the world, many worlds, as fully as he can, and that’s what matters. Micah’s happy, so Kurt is happy for him. He’s not missing out because he can’t hear, Kurt thinks. He’d be missing out if they left just because it was too loud.

‘How is it?’ Blaine asks Micah with a smile.

Micah grins and gives him a big thumbs up. 


	5. Evening

The three of them sit on the couch, huddled together and covered with the fleece blankets with snowmen patterns and watching the tree lights glitter. They’re old lights, ones that Blaine found in his attic and took home. After all, he had always been the one to do up the tree at their home, so he didn’t suppose his parents would miss them. They probably wouldn’t even get a tree.

There are newer lights in case the old ones ran out, but Blaine is determined to keep these ones alive as long as possible. There’s something about the different colors, dim and gentle, that he loves.

Micah loves them too. He helped Blaine and Kurt decorate this afternoon, and now they’re cuddled together, Micah babbling and signing as fast as he can, his words so strong and his hands so confident. He tells them about his day, about Wendy who fell off the monkey bars today, and how Andrew’s mommy took him home early for his birthday. They listen, and watch, and these are the moments they could never, ever give up. The mere idea of not being a parent is strange, now.

Eventually Micah’s signs became lazy and he just speaks, and then his words get slow and he falls asleep with his head under Kurt’s shoulder. Blaine kisses his forehead and then watched Kurt carry him upstairs to put him in bed. He’s been so excited for Christmas, and Kurt and Blaine – well, they’re almost excited too. They can’t wait to see Micah’s face as he opens his presents, and reunite with Carol and Burt later that week.

Kurt comes down a few minutes later, while Blaine is wrapping presents. They’ve been doing a few each night; Blaine does the actual paper, and then Kurt makes them look nice and puts bows on, keeping track of which gifts are from Santa and which are from he and Blaine.

When Blaine thought about having kids ten years ago, this wasn’t one of the moment he envisioned. He envisioned kindergarten and home videos and dancing, but these things – the things that he knows so many other parents do – never really crossed his mind. He knows they hadn’t crossed Kurt’s, either, because Kurt told him so last year and Blaine couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks.

They’re parents, and they’re a family.

“Imagine how many presents people have to wrap when they have, like, eight kids,” Blaine says.

“Do you want eight kids?” Kurt asks, looking a little amused.

“No,” Blaine says. Then pauses. “I’d be okay with more than one, though.”

Kurt pauses in his ribbon-tying and looks at him with a look of half-surprise, half-fondness. “Oh really?”

“Mhm.”

“I see,” Kurt says. When they were younger that always discussed having more than one kid, about three years apart. They hadn’t talked about that in a long time, though. It wasn’t that Micah was difficult, but he did had certain needs that they had never considered having to face, and so their potential other children had been put on the back burner.

“Maybe we could adopt this time,” Blaine suggests.

“I like that idea,” Kurt says, and smiles even wider. “There, done.” Blaine looks down at the perfectly tied bow Kurt’s attached to the present containing a puzzle.

 “Maybe next year,” Blaine starts, “We should invest in an automatic wrapping-machine. If it exists.”

“It probably exists,” Kurt says. “But we should probably be saving our money if we might be wrapping gifts for two, next year.”

Blaine couldn’t have been happier at the prospect of wrapping even more boxes.


	6. Fall

Micah starts first grade at a new school. The place he went for kindergarten and pre-kindergarten specialized in working with kids with development disadvantages. Even a year of deafness put Micah’s speech behind his age’s target, and his Deaf accent, combined with any child’s somewhat garbled speech, made it important that Micah have people who knew how to understand him and meet his needs while improving his communication.

At the end of kindergarten, however, the students graduated and would be sent to different schools. Kurt and Blaine were faced with a choice: to send Micah to another school with extra help, or to send him to typical public school.

There were workshops for parents which they attended, and target level tests that Micah’s teachers assured them he was meeting. He was even above average in some subjects, like reading and math. Still, they worried, naturally, about integrating Micah in a place where he wouldn’t get extra help; where he would be expected to learn just as fast as other kids who had full hearing, in classes taught by teachers that relied only on speaking.

There were a lot of phone calls and emails and coffee breaks with other parents. After all, they weren’t alone in the decision.

But in the end, they sent Micah to public school. If it didn’t work out, they could have him transferred. But the school district assured him that at the lower-level grades there was, in fact, two teachers in the room at any time, and that there was speech and a no-bullying policy that seemed to be maintained well enough.

On the first day of school, Kurt and Blaine debrief Micah, making sure he knows what to do, knows who to talk to, knows that if anything makes him sad and angry to tell them. Micah says, “Okay, Dads,” because he’s heard this so many times this week, and kisses his little sister goodbye before running out to wait for the bus on the corner. Kurt and Blaine and baby Olivia, wrapped tightly against Blaine’s chest in her papoose, wait with him until the bus pulls up and the doors open.

The bus is loud. “Hummel?” The woman shouts out.

Micah looks at her a little afraid. For a second Kurt’s terrified they’ve made the wrong choice. Blaine looks like he almost wants to tell Micah that they’ll drive him. But instead, they smile, and gently push Micah on the back. He glances at him, worried.

“Go have a great day at school,” Kurt says, beaming proudly at him. Micah grins back when he sees his dads smiling, and climbs the steep stairs onto the yellow school bus that he will take for the next five years.


	7. Grace

Blaine’s fingers fly gracefully over the keys. Olivia is in her playpen, content to chew on a plastic ring and listen to her father play.

He doesn’t play like this too often anymore. His life is a whirlwind of second grade and changing diapers and making dinner and doing chores. He works at the library on weekends and Kurt works at his fashion design company during the week. Sometimes he can work at home, but during the day Monday through Friday, it’s mainly Blaine’s job to keep the house in order.

It wasn’t something he really thought about, being at at-home dad, sort of. But he doesn’t feel used. He doesn’t feel bored, or lonely, or jealous of Kurt. He’s happy. He gets to watch his kids grow. He gets to play with Olivia and hold her when she cries. She may not be happy, then, but she’s alive, she’s okay, and Blaine, Blaine can handle okay. And in his opinion, his life far exceeds that quantifier as well.


	8. Harmony

Their weekends are generally a little hectic. The kids aren’t in school and Blaine works, so it’s Kurt who’s left with the kids for a good six hours all by himself. Usually they go grocery shopping and Skype Burt on Saturdays. That’s exactly what they’re going to do now. But Kurt always feels just a little bit better if he has a schedule.

He’s learned a lot about schedules since having children. What he’s learned is that they very often do not work out. Kids don’t care about time, they care about doing what they want and being happy with what they’re doing. Letting go of those constraints were harder than he thought they would be. But he’s gotten used to it.

Kurt still makes lists. But he keeps them in his phone and most often, things are not finished on time. Never on the dot. But a rough outline makes Kurt feel better, as long as moving away from it is still fine. And, as he’s learned, things almost always turn out just as well as if they were planned, or better.

TODAY’S PLANS:

8:00 Get up, breakfast, Kurt do laundry

9:00 Blaine/Micah to speech, Kurt/Olivia to dentist

11:00 Home together, Kurt/kids, Blaine to work till 5

12:00 Kurt/kids to grocery store (remember get new toothbrushes!!!!)

2:00 Call Dad

4:00 Start dinner

5:00 Blaine home, dinner time

6:00 Bath time

7:00 Story and bedtime


	9. Imprint

“Happy birthday!”

Kurt’s eyes widen and then fill with tears.  Everybody is here. All of their friends, his family, and in the middle of it all, his two kids and his loving husband, grinning and loving the look of utmost surprise on his face.

“Oh my goodness!” He exclaims, giving the reaction he knows people are expecting. They all laugh.

Olivia bounds forward and shoves a card in Kurt’s hand. “Happy birthday Daddy!” She shrieks.

“Thank you sweetie!” He says, taking the piece of paper from her. In messy handwriting, with a few misspelled words, Micah’s written him a little happy birthday note.

_Happy birthday dad. You are the best dad ever. I love you._

_Love, Micah + Olivia_

On the front of the card, two handprints from paint.

Kurt never, ever throws out that card.


	10. Jukebox

They're sitting in a little booth. Every time they shift on the red faux leather, it squeaks, making both Blaine and Kurt resist movement. The kids, however, have no reservations. They're chattering and squealing and Micah loves his little sister so much, it's clear to everyone in the diner.

Olivia is quieter than Micah was, even with her hearing intact. She's young, yes, but also shy in a way Micah never was. Micah introduces her to everyone they meet and holds her hand. He drags her everywhere he can, and sometimes she cries but most of the time she seems happy to be pulled around by her big brother.

She's learned to sign even quicker than she learned to speak, which is a little mind boggling for Blaine and Kurt. At four, her signing is as good as theirs after ten years.

"What's this?" Micah asks, jabbing the glass box on the edge of the table. There are little slides inside. 

"That's a jukebox," Blaine says.

"It's how people used to listen to music," Kurt supplies. "You can put a coin in and it'll play the song you choose."

Micah's eyes widen. "And everybody hears it?" He asks excitedly.

"Yup," Kurt says.

Two minutes later Micah and Olivia are looking through songs they don't recognize whatsoever and trying to choose. Blaine suggests Sinatra but Olivia doesn't like the cover. Finally Olivia and Micah decide they like the cover of a Miles Davis and pop the coin in.

"Why isn't it playing?" Micah asks.

"Give it a minute," Kurt assures him. "This song's gotta finish first."

Five minutes later, they have their meals and the song comes on. It's good old jazz, and Blaine stands. "Dance with me," he says to them. It takes some convincing, but soon Kurt and he are dancing together, cheek to cheek and their kids and staring and laughing. Blaine can't believe how much of an old married couple he feels like right now. It's nice, though.

To their surprise, Olivia slides out of her seat and puts her hands out. Blaine grins and takes them, swinging her around. Kurt beckons Micah to join, but he doesn’t get up for another minute until finally he seems to get sick of being left out and flies out of his seat, grabbing Kurt’s hands.

They dance the whole song. Micah doesn’t quite catch when the song ends, so they keep dancing through the next song. Then their food comes, they all sit down, a little sweaty and a lot happy.


	11. Kindred

Micah is eleven when he starts talking about getting a second implant. At first Kurt and Blaine are hesitant to begin the discussion, because it’s a long conversation and, then, a long and expensive process. They want Micah to be sure he wants a second one.

In the end, school is how Micah convinces them to let him get a second one. He complains about not being able to understand the teacher when other people are talking, and how certain noises make it impossible for him to concentrate. How he misses things that are said to him, and how sometimes people don’t understand when he speaks, which frustrates him.

There are, of course, counterarguments to all of these. They tell Micah that a second implant may not fix any of these problems, and even if it did, it would take time. They explain that a second might not work quite as well as his first one did, because he’s older now. But in the end, Micah decides there are more pros than cons, and Blaine and Kurt let him decide.

All his life, they’d made sure Micah was part of both of his communities. They brought him to events – church, parties, clubs – where the Deaf community attended so he could meet and communicate with people who knew how he felt. They made sure he talked to his Deaf friends before he came to his final decision about his second implant. It wasn’t that his fathers were against the idea, not at all, they simply worried Micah would remove himself from an important culture completely if he got a second implant.

But Micah promised he was not abandoning the Deaf community, even if some of his friends told him they did not approve. That was their problem, he said. He admitted he knew his speech would never sound quite like a fully hearing person’s, and agreed that they would continue signing in the house. It was second nature, anyways. This was something he wanted, and needed, for him.

And so, here they were, in the same hospital as they were eleven years ago, except this time Olivia is here, and this time Micah will remember how much his head hurts, how groggy he feels. But he made the decision and they will stick by it. They will always stick by him.


	12. Legacy

Olivia loved to sing. Both Kurt and Blaine found endless pride in this, especially watching her on stage with the rest of her kindergarten class following along with everybody else.

Sure, it was only a kids’ show, and everybody got a part. The microphone was passed around awkwardly, and some kids were so quiet they still couldn’t be heard even with the volume turned up. But as they watched Olivia recite her line about Hanukah, then follow along with her teacher in the dreidel song, they couldn’t help the enormous smiles on their faces. Micah sat between them, watching and clearly bored, but even he didn’t miss the proud smiles his dads exchanged over his head during the song.


	13. Midnight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This section rated PG for mentions of chronic illness.

Kurt watches his husband’s chest go up and down in his sleep. It’s late, so late, and Kurt’s tired after a day of school, work, dinnertime, bath time, and all of it he did alone.

Blaine’s been sick for three months, now, and he doesn’t get better or worse, he just is. It’s an autoimmune disease, atypical and largely unsolvable, save for attempting to keep him as healthy as possible. The kids don’t understand and Kurt hardly understands himself.

This shouldn’t be happening, not to them. They’ve already gone through so much. It bothers Kurt that after all they’ve done, this can still happen to them.

And they’re still paying off Micah’s second implant. They’re about to start paying for braces for Micah and Olivia wants to play violin. Blaine isn’t working and needs so many things that cost money – pills, therapy, doctors’ appointments, crutches. On top of all the usual expenses, money is tight. It’s stressful, so stressful, and Kurt feels a little bit like he’s losing hold of his family.

“Dad?”

It’s Olivia, in the doorway, looking small and innocent and holding her stuffed rabbit tight to her chest.

“What is it, sweetie? It’s late.” He watches her shift nervously and open her mouth a few times before she replies.

“I can’t sleep.”

Kurt feels his chest tighten. He knows she’s worrying, she’s always worried so much and he needs to stay strong for her. So he offers to sleep with her in her room, and she says yes. They get into Olivia’s small bed and she rests her head on his chest as he rubs her back. He can feel her crying, a little.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

She sniffs and clutches his shirt, but says nothing. It doesn’t matter, Kurt knows. “It’s okay,” he soothes her. “It’s going to work out, you’ll see… Daddy’s gonna be fine.”

They lay like that until her sniffs slow and her breathing evens, and Kurt knows she’s asleep. He could get up, join Blaine back in their bed and fall asleep where he has more room. But instead, he stays where he is, close to his daughter and falls asleep knowing she’s safe.


	14. Needle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This section rated PG for mentions of chronic illness and hospital situation.

There’s this girl in his class who Micah really likes, and she invited him to go to the mall with him today. And of course he said yes, because he _really_ likes this girl, and _really_ wants to spend time with her so she’ll like him back.

But he’s just texted her that he can’t.

His dad’s in the hospital. They tried chemo for a while but it didn’t work, it just made him sicker, and now he’s stuck in here. His other dad woke him up at four in the morning to tell him aunt Rachael was coming over _now_ , because an ambulance was coming and to make sure Olivia was okay and went to school. He failed at that, though. Olivia wouldn’t go to school, she just cried, and Micah stayed home with her because he didn’t want to leave the house either.

He sits on the couch with Olivia. She’s pressed up against his side with her thumb in her mouth, a habit their dads have been trying to get her to break for ages now. But he isn’t about to tease her, not right now. She’s been upset all morning. He hears the phone ring but just keeps his eyes on the television, hoping it’s nothing bad.

A minute later, Rachael comes in with the phone and hands it to him. “It’s your dad,” she says, but she doesn’t seem too grim and that makes Micah a little hopeful. Olivia watches him with wide eyes.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Buddy.” Kurt’s voice sounds calm, not at all like it did a few hours ago when he hurried in and out of Micah’s room in the dark. “How are you doing?”

“I didn’t go to school,” he admits. “Are you mad?”

“No, honey, I’m not mad at all. It’s okay.”

Micah feels a little relieved. He wouldn’t be able to handle being in trouble _and_ this at the same time. “Is Dad okay?”

Kurt sighs. “He’s doing better. They’ve got him in an IV and he’s sleeping, but he’s gonna be okay. We should be home by this evening. Is Olivia okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Micah replies. “I’ll give her the phone.”

“Okay,” Kurt says. “Love you, Micah.”

“Love you too,” Micah says, then shoves the phone at Olivia, who looks nervous.

As the two of them begin to talk, Micah slides off the couch and closes himself off in his bedroom. In a year, things will be okay again. His dad won’t even have to use arm crutches, and he’ll be working again. They’ll wrestle and argue together and Micah will go on a lot of dates with the girl in his class. He’ll even get a really awkward sex talk from his dads. But right now, there’s just uncertainty, and it’s frightening.


	15. Occasion

On their twentieth anniversary, neither of the kids are home. They’re both at sleepovers, where Blaine and Kurt dropped them off a few hours ago. They’re driving home, excited for the night, but right now, with streetlights flashing by, Kurt can’t help but think in wonder how his life has ended up like this.

Blaine’s driving, and he’s healthy, he’s so well. Micah has a sweet girlfriend and is well into high school while Olivia is growing up so fast that Kurt can never seem to buy her enough clothes before they don’t fit anymore. Twenty years ago, he was young, stupidly young, and looking forward to spending an entire life with Blaine. They were in their tiny little apartment in the neighborhood they haven’t visited in over a decade, both trying to fathom how to make a living in New York City.

And now he has kids, two amazing, empathetic children who are suddenly so old, and he’s still with Blaine. They met young and Kurt knows he’s lucky that he found his soul mate so early in his life.

“What are you thinking about?”

Blaine’s voice interrupts his thoughts and Kurt, he almost wants to laugh at himself for getting so emotional that he could just cry from happiness right now. He faces his husband’s curious face and smiling.

“I’m just really happy,” Kurt says. “We’re… we’re so lucky. We’re so…”

“Blessed,” Blaine fills in. Kurt’s still not religious but he can’t disagree.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “We’re so blessed.”


	16. Please

Micah wants to go into political science, something neither Blaine nor Kurt can fathom. They support it, sure, but seriously, _political science?_ They both went to school for theater and their son wants to be one of those boring old lawmakers.

“Dad,” Micah complains. “I told you, I don’t want to be a politician necessarily, it’s about more than that.”

Micah’s told them this at least a hundred times, they just never seem to get over the statement without some convincing and shocked looks.

“Please, just let me do my own thing,” he whines.

“We’re fine with it, Micah, just…. Oregon is so far away. Why can’t you apply somewhere closer?”

Micah is also determined to go to University of Oregon, something Kurt and Blaine definitely can not accept. Their little boy is not going that far away this soon.

“I’m applying to RIT and Sarah Lawrence too, and lots of other schools,” Micah complains. “What if I got a full scholarship to Oregon or something though? Just let me apply.”

They don’t want to let him go, not that far away, not yet. But finally, they relent. They can’t stop him if it’s where he really wants to be.

Of course, by the next year during application season Micah no longer wants to go to Oregon. But it hurt a little, that Micah was willing to go that far away. It hurt that Micah was growing up; was grown up. And they both seem to understand their own parents’ hesitations about New York City so many years ago a lot better.


	17. Rent

Micah’s gotten accepted to RIT with a better deal that anyone could have guessed, and Blaine and Kurt could not be more proud. And, as a bonus, it’s not _that_ far away from home. (Plus, the Deaf community is prominent there, which really attracted both Micah and his parents.)

They have a million cautionary tales, and a million pieces of advice. Every time they are convinced they’ve thought of everything, they think of something else. Eventually they realize that most of the things they’re saying are going to go right through their son’s head, however, because these were things they learned through experience, that Micah alone will have to learn as well.

They think about how they had to learn how to live with people who weren’t family, how to take care of yourself when you needed something. How to shop for food and how to pay rent. How to be an adult. It’s a process, and it can’t be taught through books. They understand that, in the end.

Still, if it makes them feel just a little bit better to go over how to call the insurance company one more time, Micah will let them do it.


	18. Scarf

Olivia knows she’s going to miss her brother a lot more than she let on. Sure, they annoyed each other, and sometimes things just seemed to be all about _him_ it bothered her, but in the end she was glad she had someone else in her life besides her dads that she could trust and relate to. He was someone she’d always drawn influence and guidance from, especially when Dad Blaine was sick.

They’re about to leave Micah in his brand new room, with his brand new roommate in this city they’ve only visited once before. Her dads are crying a little and keep warning Micah about all the things they’ve been warning him about for the past year. Micah takes it in good stride, comparatively to the last few weeks.

Then it’s her turn. She pulls something out of her bag. It’s a scarf. “Here,” she tells him. It’s a knit scarf. “I made this for you in school.”

Micah smiles. He doesn’t tell her it’s stupid or too sentimental. He doesn’t do anything but say thank you and then hug her. She hugs him back tightly. It’s not like she’ll never see him again, but she knows this is definitely the end of a period of their home life that they will never get back. Change is always hard.

“Love you, Sis,” he tells her.

“Yeah,” she says, pulling back and looking at him. “I love you too.”

Micah promises to email lots, call as much as he can. Olivia can guess how long that will last. But their parents are happy with the promise and after a few more hugs and kisses and tears, they leave.

On the train back home, Kurt asks, “What do you think of all this, Olivia?”

She thinks for a long moment, fiddling with the hem of her shirt absently. “I think it’s okay,” she says. “It’s weird I guess.”

“It is weird,” Blaine agrees. Kurt turns to half-face her in his seat and sticks his hand out like he used to when they were little, little kids. Olivia takes it and feels him squeeze it. She knows it’s more for his comfort than hers, now, but it’s a nice gesture. She thinks of Micah, “adult” and their house void of one less person. It’s going to be strange, definitely. But things will work out, she thinks. Just like it always has, things will work out.


	19. Twist

“I’m changing majors.”

Kurt blinks at his son on the screen, surprised. “Oh?” Is all he can think to say in response. He didn’t even know Micah was considering changing.

“I don’t really like what I’m doing,” he says. “But… I really like my humanities classes and I think… I talked to my advisor and I OK’d it with everyone and… I want to do social work.”

“That’s… a really big change,” Kurt replies. “What major is that?”

“Here, I’d major in Sociology and Anthropology,” Micah says. “I just… I realized it’s what I want to do, Dad.”

Kurt nods. “I’ll talk to Blaine about it,” he says slowly, “But if that’s what you want to do, Micah… Well, I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks Dad,” Micah beams.

“Though you know I’m _always_ proud of you,” Kurt reiterates. Micah laughs slightly.

“I know, yes,” he says. A few minutes later they hang up and Kurt thinks about how he should tell Blaine this is some remotely casual way. It’s not something to freak out about, but it is a major change in Micah’s life, a big twist in the plan. To be honest, though, social work sounds more worthwhile than political science to Kurt. Still, he won’t stop being proud of Micah even if he changes his major again. His son, who looks so like him and yet is so, so different, who listens and speaks with his hands too, is someone who thinks for himself and loves so fully.

Yeah, Kurt couldn’t be more proud.


	20. Uniform

Olivia’s helping her dads clean the attic when she stumbles upon some a disk that is labeled “REGIONALS, 2011.”

“What’s this?” She asks. She doesn’t miss the look of intense sentimentality that crosses over their faces when she holds it up.

“Oh God,” Kurt says, “I haven’t seen that in _forever_.”

“We could watch it,” Blaine suggests.

“With _Olivia_?”

Clearly this is something interesting. “I wanna see,” she says. Kurt looks a little exasperated but Blaine grins and ten minutes later, they’re huddled around Blaine’s laptop and watching extremely young Blaine and Kurt singing “Blow the Candles Out” together.

Olivia knew they sang together, but they were seriously good. She tended to forget that. And damn, did Kurt have a high voice.

“This is so embarrassing,” Kurt says, covering his slightly red face with his hands.

“Aw, no, you’re awesome, we were adorable,” Blaine says.

“I like it too,” Olivia says. She sends a clip of the video to Micah before she forgets. “Your uniforms are pretty, uh…”

“Don’t even comment,” Kurt says, groaning.

“Your dad definitely had a thing for the uniform when he joined Dalton, Olive,” Blaine says, and Kurt hits him slightly, making a pained noise. Olivia laughs and turns back to the screen. It’s fun to tease about, but even way, way back then, Olivia sees her fathers looking at each other the same way they still do. Deeply, almost sickeningly in love. It’s never changed. She can only hope to find someone who she loves that much some day. She can’t really imagine it, right now. But watching this video, she’s sure it’ll happen, someday.


	21. Vacation

Two days after Christmas, they fly from Ohio to Hawaii for a family vacation. They’ve ever gone to Hawaii before, but Blaine’s always wanted to and Kurt, as much as he wanted to resist falling into tourist trappings, couldn’t deny that he was curious as well.

They’ve been saving for some trip for the entire year, and Micah now has a job to support himself which helps their financial situation a considerable amount.

Olivia is, as always, calm on the plane ride, but Blaine is _buzzing_. He loves traveling – why Kurt doesn’t really understand – and he can’t wait to be in some fairytale-paradise with his family.

Of course, vacations are never complete without a few hurt feelings, a few tears, but overall they get an experience they’ll never forget. Olivia drinks excessively for the first time with some random beach girls, Micah sleeps with some lifeguard and Kurt and Blaine try not to punch either of their children. The sunburn is more than enough without the hangovers.

Still, they’re together as a family. And in twenty years, they’ll definitely laugh at the pictures of them all forcing smiles in front of the beach. They’ll laugh at Olivia’s awful long hair and the fact that Blaine attempted to bring home a water bottle full of sand that was detained in the airport. They’ll laugh because while that vacation could have and was considered somewhat of a failure, they’re glad for the experience anyways.

 

 


	22. Wedding

Olivia is only a sophomore when her high school performs Les Miserables and she, to most peoples’ surprises, gets the role of Cossette. It even surprises Blaine and Kurt because while they knew she could sing beautifully, they had no idea she could act, nor that she had any desire to. And of course, the fact that she was chosen to play _Cossette_ is a little funny, given their complete opposite personalities.

They’re even more shocked when they see the performance opening night. The fact that their daughter would sing in the stratosphere, kiss boys, cry, get married, and pray for her dying father didn’t exactly become real until they saw it and good god, did they both sob.

Afterwards, Olivia asks if they liked it. They both say they loved it, even though it was painful to watch. Their little girl, performing so beautifully, and who knew she was _that_ talented?

“You look beautiful in the wedding dress,” Kurt says, and Olivia beams.

“I like it a lot,” she says. In the future, her wedding dress will be fairly comparable, except this time she won’t be getting married on stage. She’ll be beaming, holding hands with her loving future wife, and her dads, sitting in the front row of chairs, will cry just as much as they did today.

**  
**


	23. Year

In a year, there won’t be any kids left in the house, and Blaine and Kurt have no idea how to come to terms with that idea. For the last twenty-something years, their life has become progressively less about BlaineandKurt and instead, Family. _Their_ family.

So much can happen in a year, Blaine thinks. In a year, they had Micah, and their world was flipped upside even more than it would have been had Micah not been born deaf. They had to learn an entire new language and make choices they never even considered having to make. Then they had Olivia, and their home felt even more complete, even though nothing had seemed missing before. Blaine had gotten sick, and Kurt was afraid that this was the end of their happiness; that they had used all of it up and things could only get worse. But instead, they get better.

Their kids both succeeded in school and Olivia knows she wants to go to school for Early Education, she knows that in a way Micah definitely didn’t about political science, and she gets nearly a full scholarship to Sarah Lawrence. She won’t be too far away, but she’ll be on a traditional, individualized campus, and both Blaine and Kurt are sure it’s a good place for her.

Micah’s graduated and now has a job in Rochester as an entry-level social worker, and he says it’s stressful, but he honestly enjoys it, and that’s all Kurt and Blaine need to hear. They want their kids to be happy, healthy, and successful, and somehow, they’ve managed to keep it that way most of the time. Not always, but the majority of the time, and they’re proud. They should be proud, Burt tells them. And when Burt tells someone they should be proud, they know he’s not lying.

Kurt beams at the compliment. “Thanks, Dad,” he says.

Burt smiles and hugs him, then Blaine. “You know being a dad never really ends,” he says, and they both nod. They know. And they’re happy for it. But once Olivia is gone, it’ll be the end of another stage in their life, and the beginning of the rest of hers. They’re almost anxious with anticipation about where their kids will go, and certainly anxious about how they’ll get through it all. But Kurt and Blaine, they’ve gotten through a lot themselves, and if anything, they taught their kids to be strong. Both of their kids are incredibly strong, and they have more courage than either Blaine or Kurt could have ever wished for.


	24. Zigzag

They’re not sure how they ended up here. As teenagers – even young adults – they had never really imagined that their life would be like this. They had never imaged that they would split, or that Blaine would gather half of Ohio to propose, or that their first child would be born deaf and they’d move to New Jersey. They hadn’t considered all the mediocre things they would do together that they would do over, and over again, and remember them well as one mesh of activity.

Like breakfast every morning. Micah always ate cereal, Olivia always ate toast with whatever Blaine was having on his on her own. Kurt usually ate cereal too, but the healthier variety than Micah, and sometimes he cut up bananas or put in raisins to mix in. During the school week, breakfast was never all together. Kurt was at work by eight, and Blaine would be left to get the kids ready for school. Afterwards, Blaine would drive to work himself. Kurt would pick them up. They took turns cooking.

All of it was the same, most days, but it all went by so _fast._ Their whole life was confusing, a back-and-forth, zigzagging commotion, and yet at the same time, so simple. So… normal.

They never imagined, in exact images, sending their second child off to college, and crying half the way home despite her only being an hour away. They didn’t picture Blaine’s hair greying at the edges, or Kurt having to wear glasses most of the time now. It wasn’t expected, but it happened.

They’re really, really glad it happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! Thank you for reading and leave a message if you feel inclined - Happy holidays! x


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